December 2023 General Discussion Thread

[ZedClampet]

I'm set to become the galactic emperor in my Stellaris game. When I quit I had about 60-70% of the votes and I don't expect that to change suddenly. Then I can finally force my peaceful and spiritual ways upon the entirety of the galaxy.

Then I need to check if the end game crisis is turned on. If it is, I'll continue playing until it's triggered and I've defeated it. If it isn't, there isn't really anything else I want to accomplish and I'll probably just call it a win.

I assume the DLC will go on sale during the winter sale, do you own/recommend any of the DLC? The only one that immediately stuck out to me was Utopia, which sounds distinctly un-utopian.

*****
On Weed Shop 3, I was misleading when I said there wasn't much left to do in Weed Shop 3. What I should have said was that there wasn't much left to do that I intended to do. There are about half-a-dozen things I've turned off in the options because I'm just not interested in them. Right now there would be gang wars going on, and we're about to get infiltrated by aliens. The game is chock full of content (much of it ridiculous) that I've either turned off or just avoided. Refusing to do the DXXBR deliveries, for example, is one reason my money is a little slower to grow than it should be, but I just don't enjoy the timed RC car mini-game that you have to do. I've never failed it. It just isn't fun.

I've also decided not to chase influencers around the map. I've got maybe a dozen influencers who are good customers, but the rest of them require too much effort for what you get out of it. They each show up at certain areas at certain times of the day, and you have to go there and give them freebies. Sometimes you have to go to them 30 or more times to win their business, and days take forever. So it would be a real pain to keep running all over the city trying to get to each place at the right time over and over again each in-game day.

It may sound like I don't like the game, but I actually love the farming, the lab work and running the store. What I've enjoyed has been growing the various strains of weed, working in the lab to produce hybrids, upgrading everything, organizing my shop, keeping up with inventory, setting pricing, working with my employees, etc. I'm just glad the developer had the foresight to make everything else optional.

 

[neogunhero]

I’m probably extremely late to this theory, but I haven’t seen anyone else say it this way. I was thinking about why GTA 6 is coming to consoles only at first and to me there’s one major glowing answer, and it’s got to be to sell more consoles. GTA is the most profitable piece of entertainment in the entire industry, so it would make sense that this franchise that probably billions of people have played at some point in their lives or at least heard of would come to consoles first. It forces PC gamers to buy a console, and it forces anybody who has both a gaming PC and current gen console to play it on console first. This helps boost console sales at a time when most people would agree PC’s are the best way to play games even if it’s out of reach for a lot of people. The cheapest way to play GTA 6 on launch is to buy a $250 Xbox Series S, where as the cheapest PC that could play GTA as well as the Series S could be closer to $1000. And for PC gamers who play it on console first, they’re going to buy the game again on PC. Of course this game could realistically release on PC day one along side console versions, but I bet doing it this way R* probably gets some kickback from Sony and Microsoft for helping boost their console sales.

This is probably so blatantly obvious but my pea brain just thought about it this morning and it makes perfect sense.

 

[ZedClampet]

I’m probably extremely late to this theory, but I haven’t seen anyone else say it this way. I was thinking about why GTA 6 is coming to consoles only at first and to me there’s one major glowing answer, and it’s got to be to sell more consoles. GTA is the most profitable piece of entertainment in the entire industry, so it would make sense that this franchise that probably billions of people have played at some point in their lives or at least heard of would come to consoles first. It forces PC gamers to buy a console, and it forces anybody who has both a gaming PC and current gen console to play it on console first. This helps boost console sales at a time when most people would agree PC’s are the best way to play games even if it’s out of reach for a lot of people. The cheapest way to play GTA 6 on launch is to buy a $250 Xbox Series S, where as the cheapest PC that could play GTA as well as the Series S could be closer to $1000. And for PC gamers who play it on console first, they’re going to buy the game again on PC. Of course this game could realistically release on PC day one along side console versions, but I bet doing it this way R* probably gets some kickback from Sony and Microsoft for helping boost their console sales.

This is probably so blatantly obvious but my pea brain just thought about it this morning and it makes perfect sense.

GTA 6 will definitely sell some consoles, but it would be an odd partnership, having Sony and Xbox joining together to create a non-exclusive exclusivity deal, especially since Phil Spencer has made an effort to focus on Windows as a gaming platform the last few years. If it came out that Microsoft had conspired to keep a game off of Windows, that would be a very bad look.

Could be right, though, but I bet all Rockstar is really thinking is that they are going to get PC gamers to double-dip.

****

I think my kids and I make the perfect gaming team.

Zed: Takes no risks
Jethro: Takes an appropriate amount of risks
Elly May: Couldn't care less whether she lives or dies.

 

[neogunhero]

If it came out that Microsoft had conspired to keep a game off of Windows, that would be a very bad look.

Could be right, though, but I bet all Rockstar is really thinking is that they are going to get PC gamers to double-dip.

Yeah, I don’t think they are actually conspiring all together, but there has to something going on behind the scenes. You just don’t take 12 years to make a game to end up saying the PC version needs more time. R* is definitely wanting PC players to double dip, it worked for GTA 5 and RDR 2. I played both games at/right around launch day on consoles, then bought both games very shortly after their PC release. I guess I’m their prime demographic of suckers that they’re targeting haha.

 

[Brian Boru]

I'm just glad the developer had the foresight to make everything else optional

Kudos to Weed Games, they know 2 ways to keep their customers happy

Hey Zed, our future is looking… er, brighter:

The pro gamer who has to rely upon sound alone

How video games are continuing to become more accessible for people with impaired vision.

www.bbc.com

doing it this way R* probably gets some kickback from Sony and Microsoft

Anything is possible of course, especially in US Capitalism, but I seriously doubt large companies like MS and Sony would risk so much for relatively little reward—it would be very difficult to keep such a conspiracy hidden long-term. The reputation damage would be 10x worse than any possible profit.

Besides that, it would be rare for Take Two's CEO to be happy with lower revenues for current and coming quarters—US public company focus is very much on the short term.

It forces PC gamers to buy a console

Eh, what?

 

[neogunhero]

Anything is possible of course, especially in US Capitalism, but I seriously doubt large companies like MS and Sony would risk so much for relatively little reward—it would be very difficult to keep such a conspiracy hidden long-term. The reputation damage would be 10x worse than any possible profit.

Besides that, it would be rare for Take Two's CEO to be happy with lower revenues for current and coming quarters—US public company focus is very much on the short term.

I definitely don’t think it’s anything illegal or a conspiracy, it just doesn’t make any sense to me that they take 12 years to make this, probably at least 5 years worth of active development if I had to guess, and not come out with a PC version on launch day. Like I said on my last post, how much more time could they possibly need on the PC version? R* has so many employees they could dedicate a whole team to make sure the PC version is on par quality-wise with console versions on launch day. I shouldn’t have said Sony and MS get kickbacks, what I meant is that surely they will profit from console sales from people who really want to play GTA 6 as soon as it comes out, and that it would be illegal if R* worked with Sony and MS to conspire together to make this happen. Whatever the case, it all boils down to making more money, and it’s definitely not illegal for R* to deliberately release the PC version later to make some extra bucks.

Eh, what?

“Forces” was a strong word choice, but it’s undeniable that there will be some primarily PC gamers who will end up buying a current gen console to play GTA 6 before it comes out on PC, or even people with last-gen consoles finally have a reason to upgrade.

 

[Brian Boru]

it just doesn’t make any sense to me that they take 12 years to make this, probably at least 5 years worth of active development if I had to guess, and not come out with a PC version on launch day

My limited knowledge of big-time dev is that it's a lot easier to dev for console than for PC—makes sense to me given the huge variation in PCs v the minimal console choices.

So if I'm CEO with a big fat bonus for extra profitable quarters, I'm gonna tell the guys "Dev console first so I get my mega bonus before I retire / get fired / accept the big job at Sony"

I guess I’m their prime demographic of suckers that they’re targeting haha

You know me, I'm far too polite to say anything like that

 

[ZedClampet]

I definitely don’t think it’s anything illegal or a conspiracy, it just doesn’t make any sense to me that they take 12 years to make this, probably at least 5 years worth of active development if I had to guess, and not come out with a PC version on launch day. Like I said on my last post, how much more time could they possibly need on the PC version? R* has so many employees they could dedicate a whole team to make sure the PC version is on par quality-wise with console versions on launch day. I shouldn’t have said Sony and MS get kickbacks, what I meant is that surely they will profit from console sales from people who really want to play GTA 6 as soon as it comes out, and that it would be illegal if R* worked with Sony and MS to conspire together to make this happen. Whatever the case, it all boils down to making more money, and it’s definitely not illegal for R* to deliberately release the PC version later to make some extra bucks.

“Forces” was a strong word choice, but it’s undeniable that there will be some primarily PC gamers who will end up buying a current gen console to play GTA 6 before it comes out on PC, or even people with last-gen consoles finally have a reason to upgrade.

I don't know enough about their game engine and such to know whether it really is a problem to come out with the PC version at the same time, but I do know that the PC version causes them a lot of pain and suffering (based on what they say) due to piracy, mods and cheaters, and it may also be more difficult to port such a gigantic, complex game for the many different types of PC hardware that their players will have. It's probably the biggest, most complex game I can think of, and there are a ton of PC players with potatoes. They may just want to concentrate on their very profitable console launch without having to think about PC for awhile. It's hard to get real numbers, but if you combine Playstation and Xbox together for GTAV, they actually made more money than PC.

 

[Colif]

Bought a Galaxy S23 FE yesterday, needed a new phone as old one was 4 years old and was starting to have issues like:

• Wouldn't use fast charge, I would have to plug cable in a few times to get it to work.
• Wouldn't always pause youtube videos when I tried to. I would have to reorientate the screen to get button to show.
• I couldn't read the screen in direct sunlight - I couldn't see anything at all really.

there were others, I can't think of them all.

I did want a S23+ but the store didn't have any and the warehouse couldn't tell me when it would be shipped. I went with the cheaper version. I know its not as good but coming from a 4 year old phone, I can't tell the difference. Its only reviewers who see every product that can tell the difference.

That last statement applies to almost every product... don't buy that GPU, its not better than last years... so what if you using a 5 year old GPU, we don't review things based on how good they are compared to that many previous years... we short sighted. If you not buying new things every year, you not a good little consumer.

• Cameras seem better though its hard to find an exact comparison and I don't feel like swapping sim card into old phone to take a photo now.
• Screen max res is smaller but its refresh rate is double. It is a bigger screen but it doesn't feel bigger. Phone is .6" bigger.
• At least I can get new versions of Android now... eventually once they rolled out for phone. Old phone had lost support years ago.
• Its probably better at games but mobile games are not worth playing. Might look reasonable now - pretty amazed at the graphics in the 3d mark benchmark. But they full of ways of making you pay. Pass. Mobiles are a lost cause. Too many games companies see it as a cash cow. Diablo Immoral comes to mind. I bet there are far worse.

Ran geekbench, its faster than 92% of all other phones, but its also only 4% as fast as a Samsung S23, so its not as good as its more expensive brothers. But if I never use one of those I would only know that detail from tests. Its like I know my 7900 XT isn't as good as a 4090 but its still good enough to play every game that exists... just maybe not at 4k ultra.

The inability of old phone to consistently use fast charge also came back to bit me yesterday as to transfer data from old phone to new is via USB C cable and the cable kept not connecting to new phone. Took a while before it worked. I tried wifi but even though they both on same router, it kept saying they on different networks. So good thing cable eventually worked.

Spent a few hours trying to get phone back to how other one was. Needed to remember names of the programs I used, I had mostly ignored my phone for the last two years or so. One previous phones I had used custom launchers and I made my own theme... the launchers didn't work well on last phone so I had stuck to defaults. Its been fixed in the years since.

Not bad for day one.

 

[Zloth]

I'm set to become the galactic emperor in my Stellaris game. When I quit I had about 60-70% of the votes and I don't expect that to change suddenly. Then I can finally force my peaceful and spiritual ways upon the entirety of the galaxy.

Oh dear - you have entered the "I know I'm going to win, now I'm just grinding along until the game figures it out" phase, haven't you? I really hate that about 4X games.

Then I need to check if the end game crisis is turned on. If it is, I'll continue playing until it's triggered and I've defeated it. If it isn't, there isn't really anything else I want to accomplish and I'll probably just call it a win.

Oh, that reminds me, X4 Foundations' next big feature is going to add some sort of 'end game crises' feature. Details are sketchy, but it sounds like you'll be able to talk to somebody and essentially tell the game to kick off some sort of massive battle. If you don't want to mess with that, you simply never ask for it to happen.

 

[ZedClampet]

So if I'm CEO with a big fat bonus for extra profitable quarters, I'm gonna tell the guys "Dev console first so I get my mega bonus before I retire / get fired / accept the big job at Sony"

With other games I might disagree, but GTA is one of the few these days that could launch PC and console simultaneously and make a ton more money on console than on PC (theoretically). It's a console game through and through. GTA V sold 1/3 of it's games on PC (best estimate), so 2/3 came from Xbox and Playstation.

 

[BeardyHat]

I assume the DLC will go on sale during the winter sale, do you own/recommend any of the DLC? The only one that immediately stuck out to me was Utopia, which sounds distinctly un-utopian.

There's quite a few threads on Reddit for essential DLC's.

I'm thankful, I've been buying them periodically throughout the years, so I seem to have all the essential ones.

 

[ZedClampet]

Oh no. There seems to be a Weed Shop Christmas update. After the missile shooting turkeys at Thanksgiving I'm kind of afraid.

 

[Brian Boru]

I'm going to win, now I'm just grinding along until the game figures it out" phase, haven't you? I really hate that about 4X games

I don't. That's the spot where I roll a new game—lots more enjoyment that way

If you don't want to mess with that, you simply never ask for it to happen

Beware of Devs bringing Options. Is it a Trojan, or is it real?

Weed Shop Christmas update

Reindeer dropping incendiary bombs down chimneys.

 

[ZedClampet]

Reindeer dropping incendiary bombs down chimneys.

If by "incendiary bombs" you mean flaming reindeer dung, then you are probably close.

***

Played some Phasmophobia today with the kids. It was a nice change of pace. I actually found it very relaxing. I have about $14,000, and we take turns bringing the gear, so there's no money pressure at all.

 

[Pifanjr]

I assume the DLC will go on sale during the winter sale, do you own/recommend any of the DLC? The only one that immediately stuck out to me was Utopia, which sounds distinctly un-utopian.

I haven't interacted with all the mechanics and I don't remember how the game was without all the DLC, but the only one that really seems worth it is indeed Utopia. For the other ones it just depends on whether you're planning on interacting with those systems. I did a pacifist game, so for me the Federation DLC was (probably) nice to have as I interacted a lot with the galactic community. If you're planning on having a lot of vassals, the Overlord DLC is more interesting. MegaCorp is nice if you want to build tall or just want to play as an intergalactic trader. Nemesis might be fun if you like the idea of becoming the end game crisis yourself.

If you expect to just play one or two games before moving on to another game I would suggest only getting Utopia and maybe Apocalypse for the mid-game crisis.

Oh dear - you have entered the "I know I'm going to win, now I'm just grinding along until the game figures it out" phase, haven't you? I really hate that about 4X games.

There isn't a win condition in Stellaris outside of a victory score screen after 300 in-game years, after which you can just continue playing, so it's up to me to figure out when I've "won".

I became the galactic emperor, which honestly didn't really change much except allow me to build an imperial fleet. It did also dissolve all federations, so I got an absolute spam of notifications of AI players making treaties with each other as they no longer contained themselves to diplomacy within their own federations.

I did discover I just entered the late game, so I decided to build up my defences while I wait for the end game crisis to arrive. However, the fallen empire that borders me has also woken up, so I might have to deal with that first. It has a combined fleet power of 750k or so, while I have maybe 300k, so hopefully the rest of the galaxy will come to the defence of their emperor if I do get attacked. And next time I'll remember to build defences on the border of the fallen empire, instead of assuming they just keep being peaceful and ignoring that border entirely...

I don't really have any goals outside of waiting for the end game crisis now. I could start building a bunch of megastructures, but I don't really feel like I need any of them. I think I'll save that for the next game, for which I'll do a bigger galaxy and up the difficulty so I won't become a superpower quite as quickly.

 

[Pifanjr]

Whelp, nevermind all of that. I wanted to play a bit more in my break and discovered the game didn't save my progress. I really don't feel like redoing the last 1.5 hours, especially rebuilding all of the defence platforms, so I just started a new game instead. This time as an ancient machine intelligence that once ruled most of the galaxy but was almost entirely destroyed. It's now coming back with a vengeance against all organic life.

 

[neogunhero]

Getting bored of Goat Simulator 3 already as expected. It starts to lose its charm after just a few hours. Girlfriend was feeling sick last night so we didn’t get to play It Takes Two, we started that up for our second playthrough a few nights ago. Great game if you have a partner to play it with, or even just a friend. Platforming feels very tight, puzzles are uniquely designed and there is always some new feature coming along the way to make sure the game doesn’t get repetitive over its 15 or so hours it takes to beat. This time we are swapping roles as each character has different unique abilities and gets different unlocks throughout the game.

So instead I decided to play some Dicey Dungeons on the Xbox One. It was nice to not be sitting at my computer desk to play a game, I rarely play on my Xbox. It’s getting old and slow, and with the network issues it has, cloud streaming games isn’t always the best experience (in GS3 I was dealing with the visual glitches as it’s not a game you need to pay too much attention to). Dicey Dungeons is full 2D so it runs buttery smooth on the Xbox. That’s also another reason I rarely play on the Xbox: any game I want to play on there I could easily play on PC with a lot smoother frame rate. Sometimes I wish I had a PS4/PS5 instead because there are games on those consoles that aren’t available on PC, because nearly every game released for Xbox One/Series S|X is available on PC. The tiny handful that aren't on PC are not really worth playing.

I used to play Dicey Dungeons on my brothers Switch when he still lived with me. It’s a great little action roguelike, mixed with card and dice gameplay. It plays a lot like Slay the Spire. You have cards that take certain dice rolls to use, and each turn you roll your dice. For example, you have a card that does X amount of damage, so you want to put your highest rolled die there, or there’s a card that does X amount of poison damage but it can only be even numbered die. You can reroll, and there are tons of other cards, but that is some of the basic starting cards.

The artwork and music is top notch to me. I love this style so much, it’s cartoony, funny, playful but doesn’t take itself too serious. The game is made by one of my favorite game developers, Terry Cavanagh. He has three games that are very well known and they are all fantastic to me: VVVVVV, Super Hexagon and Dicey Dungeons. His games are usually made with a small amount of people but they always have such great charm. VVVVVV is one of the first indie games I ever played and it totally made me rethink what games could be, that games don’t always need to be these huge multimillion dollar projects that involve hundreds of people. Terry’s games have always instilled the purest sense of indie to me.

Anyways, Dicey Dungeons is amazing, if you like games like Slay the Spire I HIGHLY recommend it. 👍

 

[ZedClampet]

Getting bored of Goat Simulator 3 already as expected. It starts to lose its charm after just a few hours. Girlfriend was feeling sick last night so we didn’t get to play It Takes Two, we started that up for our second playthrough a few nights ago. Great game if you have a partner to play it with, or even just a friend. Platforming feels very tight, puzzles are uniquely designed and there is always some new feature coming along the way to make sure the game doesn’t get repetitive over its 15 or so hours it takes to beat. This time we are swapping roles as each character has different unique abilities and gets different unlocks throughout the game.

So instead I decided to play some Dicey Dungeons on the Xbox One. It was nice to not be sitting at my computer desk to play a game, I rarely play on my Xbox. It’s getting old and slow, and with the network issues it has, cloud streaming games isn’t always the best experience (in GS3 I was dealing with the visual glitches as it’s not a game you need to pay too much attention to). Dicey Dungeons is full 2D so it runs buttery smooth on the Xbox. That’s also another reason I rarely play on the Xbox: any game I want to play on there I could easily play on PC with a lot smoother frame rate. Sometimes I wish I had a PS4/PS5 instead because there are games on those consoles that aren’t available on PC, because nearly every game released for Xbox One/Series S|X is available on PC. The tiny handful that aren't on PC are not really worth playing.

I used to play Dicey Dungeons on my brothers Switch when he still lived with me. It’s a great little action roguelike, mixed with card and dice gameplay. It plays a lot like Slay the Spire. You have cards that take certain dice rolls to use, and each turn you roll your dice. For example, you have a card that does X amount of damage, so you want to put your highest rolled die there, or there’s a card that does X amount of poison damage but it can only be even numbered die. You can reroll, and there are tons of other cards, but that is some of the basic starting cards.

The artwork and music is top notch to me. I love this style so much, it’s cartoony, funny, playful but doesn’t take itself too serious. The game is made by one of my favorite game developers, Terry Cavanagh. He has three games that are very well known and they are all fantastic to me: VVVVVV, Super Hexagon and Dicey Dungeons. His games are usually made with a small amount of people but they always have such great charm. VVVVVV is one of the first indie games I ever played and it totally made me rethink what games could be, that games don’t always need to be these huge multimillion dollar projects that involve hundreds of people. Terry’s games have always instilled the purest sense of indie to me.

Anyways, Dicey Dungeons is amazing, if you like games like Slay the Spire I HIGHLY recommend it. 👍

Absolutely loved It Takes Two. Was hilarious in parts. Well, they give you the tools for comedy, and you kind of have to choose to go that route.

You said you kind of wished you had a Playstation. Have you ever tried PSNow? It kind of depends on your Internet, but I never had any problems with it when I subbed to it a few years ago. I don't really like 2d action games, so a lot of console games aren't for me, but I played a bunch of their great exclusives. Of course, a lot of those have come to PC now.

 

[neogunhero]

Have you ever tried PSNow? It kind of depends on your Internet, but I never had any problems with it when I subbed to it a few years ago.

Looks like it’s now a part of PS Plus Premium, which is $18 a month, and can’t guarantee that a non-DualShock controller will work. They said most controller should work, but it would be a shame not to use a PS5 controller with all the new features on a PS exclusive that was designed for that controller. I’d really like to play Bloodbourne and Ghost of Tsushima, and I bet they would work just fine on my Xbox Series controller, but it just seems a little bit expensive when I can get a month of Game Pass Ultimate free each month as long as I keep up with my rewards points. Maybe I’ll be the sucker who buys a PS5 just to play GTA6 and then I’ll try out the subscription service haha.

 

[ZedClampet]

Ugh. Ranch Simulator was on sale, so I bought it. Worked through the painful tutorial. Last part of the tutorial was demolishing this gigantic house, which took forever. When I was done, it was getting dark (Day 2), so I ran over to the tent/save point and left clicked. Unfortunately I was still holding the crowbar, which deleted the tent/save point.

*****

I'm really getting tired of gamafication at the expense of logic (for instance the 4 eggs to create 1 boiled egg post). Now in Phasmophobia, they've added tiers of equipment, which is fine, but the starter camera can only take one photo and then there is a long cooldown. Even worse, the camera can only take pictures of things closer than 5 meters.

Please just stop.

 

[Brian Boru]

Ugh

You need some Zen in your life, so here you go:

Zen for Zed

Save 51% on Birch Simulator on Steam

The main characters of modern games can be very different. Brave knights, brilliant scientists or superheroes saving entire worlds. This game offers you a more unusual experience. Here you can become a Birch.

store.steampowered.com

 

[ZedClampet]

You need some Zen in your life, so here you go:

Zen for Zed

Save 51% on Birch Simulator on Steam

The main characters of modern games can be very different. Brave knights, brilliant scientists or superheroes saving entire worlds. This game offers you a more unusual experience. Here you can become a Birch.

store.steampowered.com

Meditating makes me anxious. I think about all the time I'm wasting.

 

[Zloth]

Solasta's Palace of Ice DLC is still good fun!

I found a young dwarven gal in town that wanted to adventure with my party. That sounds... foolhardy. But I wanted to see what would happen, so I let her join the party. She had a fine armor class (21) but only about 25 hit points. The rest of the party is level 13 and has more like 100hp each. It won't be easy to hit her, but she isn't going to be able to take more than 2 or 3 hits - and enemies at this level swing at least twice per turn.

Sure enough, we barely got on the road before getting ambushed by three young dragons, a black and two greens! One green flies to the front of the party and starts wailing on my cleric. The black lands well behind the green and breaths acid, burning quite a few party members (and the first green dragon), but the cone didn't reach all the way to the back where the young dwarf was standing. The second green used its poison breath from closer but at an angle, so she was missed again.

Finally, the surprise has worn off. My court wizard doesn't even try to attack - he uses his courtly power of adding about 60 temporary hit points to the young dwarf and himself (which he badly needed, both those breath attacks hit him pretty hard), then runs off and hides behind a corner toward the back. The young'n shoots the green dragon with her crossbow and lands a solid hit! I hide her in another corner toward the back.

Well, the long and short of it is that the foolhardy young dwarf was never in serious danger after that, but she got some damage done! That entitles her to a full share of XP in my book. After the battle, she thanked us and went back home... which was weird. One battle, in which you weren't hurt at all, and you're done? I can't help but think there might be more to this. What tale will she tell everyone when she gets home? Will she be hailed as some sort of new clan chief because she "single handedly slew five huge dragons?" Will her family be after me for letting her come along into such danger? Stay tuned!

 

[Brian Boru]

Wordle 3
…is a lot harder than 1 or 2, its grids go up to 7x7 and some categories have plenty of words I never heard of—example from Flowers category where I had to use a bunch of hints to bloom:

I'm now in the Countries category with the self-imposed goal of not using any hint—so far so good for 11 levels. @WoodenSaucer Hey Woody, fancy trying out that hard-earned knowledge you acquired last year?